Most Christmas light strings used for decorating on Christmas trees and elsewhere today consist of miniature light bulbs (“mini-lights”). These light bulbs are wired in electrical series connection with typical light strings having 35, 50 or 100 lights. The light strings are normally powered by standard house current of 120 volts, 60 cycle, alternating current (AC).
The mini-lights used in these strings usually have a ‘shunt’ mechanism in parallel with the filament so that when a filament burns out, the shunt is activated due to the increased voltage dropped across it, and the light string continues to operate. This shunt typically consists of several turns of oxidized aluminum wire wrapped around the mini-light's filament electrodes and attached to one of the electrodes. When the filament is broken due to a burnout or other cause, the full 120 volts AC—or peak voltage of approximately 170 volts—appears across the filament electrodes. Since one of the shunt leads is connected to one of the filament electrodes, the full voltage now exists between the other filament electrode and the thin oxidized layer on the shunt wire. The breakdown of this oxidized layer occurs at a minimum of 40 volts. Since the actual voltage can rise to approximately 170 volts, breakdown usually—but not always—occurs. The series-wired light string continues to operate but with a higher voltage dropped across each mini-light, thus, shortening bulb life.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,382 utilizes a Zener diode connected in parallel with each series connected direct-current lamp used by trucks and other vehicles, particularly military trailers, for burn-out protection for the remaining bulbs whenever one or more bulbs burns out for some reason. It is stated therein that the use of either a single or a plurality of parallel connected Zener diodes will not protect the lamps against normal failure caused by normal current flows, but will protect against failures due to excessive current surges associated with the failure of associated lamps. No suggestion appears therein of any mechanism or technique which would provide a solution to the problem successfully achieved by applicant in a very simple and economical manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,079 discloses an electrical circuit that includes a full bridge rectifier and Zener diodes connected to insure continuous energization of lamps of the string while protecting against excessive voltages and minimizing safety hazards. However, the operation of this ornament circuitry requires a much higher voltage than the 2.5 volts designed for a typical 50-light series wired string operating at 120 volts AC. Indeed, the voltage drop across each light bulb is about 9 volts AC, so if this circuit was used in a 50-light string, only a fraction of the light bulbs could be shunted (or there would be insufficient voltage to operate the full string), and the rating of the shunted bulbs would necessarily have to be different from the other bulbs in the string.
Various other attempts have heretofore been made to provide various types of shunts in parallel with the filament of each bulb, whereby the string will continue to be illuminated whenever a bulb has burned out, or otherwise provides an open circuit condition. Typical of such arrangements are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. RE 34,717; 1,024,495; 2,072,337; 2,760,120; 3,639,805; 3,912,966; 4,450,382; 4,682,079; 4,727,449; 5,379,214; and 5,006,724, together with Swiss patent 427,021.
Of the foregoing prior art patents, the Fleck '449, Harnden '966, and the Swiss '021 patents appear, at first blush, to probably be the most promising in the prior art in indicating defective bulbs in a string by the use of filament shunt circuits and/or devices of various types which range from polycrystalline materials, to powders, and to metal oxide varistors, and the like, which provide for continued current flow through the string, but at either a higher or a lower level. The reason for this is because of the fact that the voltage drop occurring across each prior art shunt is substantially different value than the value of the voltage drop across the incandescent bulb during normal operation thereof. Some of these prior art shunts cause a reduced current flow in the series string because of too high of a voltage drop occurring across the shunt when a bulb becomes inoperable, either due to an open filament, a faulty bulb, a faulty socket, or simply because the bulb is not mounted properly in the socket, or is entirely removed or falls from its respective socket. However, other shunt devices cause the opposite effect due to an undesired increase in current flow. For example, when the voltage dropped across a socket decreases, then a higher voltage is applied to all of the remaining bulbs in the string, which higher voltage results in higher current flow and a decreased life expectancy of the remaining bulbs in the string. Additionally, such higher voltage also results in increased light output from each of the remaining bulbs in the string, which may not be desirable in some instances. However, when the voltage dropped across a socket increases, then a lower voltage is applied to all of the remaining bulbs in the series connected string, which results in lesser current flow and a corresponding decrease in light output from each of the remaining bulbs in the string. Such undesirable effect occurs in all of the prior art attempts, including those which, at first blush, might be considered the most promising techniques, especially the proposed use of a diode in series with a bilateral switch in the Fleck '449 patent, or the proposed use of a metal oxide varistor in the above Harnden '966 patent, or the use of the proposed counter-connected rectifiers in the Swiss '021 patent.
For example, in the arrangement suggested in the above Fleck '449 patent, ten halogen filled bulbs, each having a minimum 12-volt operating rating, are utilized in a series circuit. The existence of a halogen gas in the envelope, permits higher value current flow through the filament with the result that much brighter light is obtainable in a very small bulb size. Normally, when ten 12-volt halogen bulbs are connected in a series string, the whole string goes dark whenever a single bulb fails and does not indicate which bulb had failed. To remedy this undesirable effect, Fleck provided a bypass circuit across each halogen filled bulb which comprised a silicon bilateral voltage triggered switch in series with a diode which rectifies the alternating current (i.e., “A.C.”) supply voltage and thereby permits current to flow through the bilateral switch only half of the time, i.e., only during each half cycle of the A. C. supply voltage. It is stated in Fleck that when a single bulb burns out, the remaining bulbs will have “diminished” light output because the diode will almost halve the effective voltage due to its blocking flow in one direction and conduction flow only in the opposite direction. Such substantially diminished light output will quite obviously call attention to the failed bulb, as well as avoid the application of a greater voltage which would decrease the life of the remaining filaments. However, in actual practice, a drastic drop in brightness has been observed, i.e. a drop from approximately 314 lux to approximately 15 lux when one bulb goes out. Additionally, it is stated by the patentee that the foregoing procedure of replacing a burned out bulb involves the interruption of the application of the voltage source in order to allow the switch to open and to resume normal operation after the bulb has been replaced. (See column 2, lines 19-22.) Additionally, as such an arrangement does not permit more that one bulb to be out at the same time, certain additional desirable special effects such as “twinkling”, and the like, obviously would not be possible.
In the arrangement suggested in Harnden '966 patent, Harden proposes to utilize a polycrystalline metal oxide varistor as the shunting device, notwithstanding the fact that it is well known that metal oxide varistors are not designed to handle continuous current flow therethrough. Consequently, they are merely a so-called “one shot” device for protective purposes, i.e. a transient voltage suppressor that is intended to absorb high frequency or rapid voltage spikes and thereby preventing such voltage spikes from doing damage to associated circuitry. They are designed for use as spike absorbers and are not designed to function as a voltage regulator or as a steady state current dissipation circuit. While metal oxide varistors may appear in some cases similar to back-to-back Zener diodes, they are not interchangeable and function very differently according to their particular use. In fact, the assignee of the Harnden '966 patent which was formerly General Electric Corporation and now is apparently Harris Semiconductor, Inc., states in their Application Note 9311: “They are exceptional at dissipating transient voltage spikes but they cannot dissipate continuous low level power.” In fact, they further state that their metal oxide varistors cannot be used as a voltage regulator as their function is to be used as a nonlinear impedance device. The only similarity that one can draw from metal oxide varistors and back-to-back Zener diodes is that they are both bi-directional; after that, the similarity ends.
In the Swiss '021 patent, Dyre discloses a bilateral shunt device having a breakdown voltage rating that, when exceeded, lowers the resistance thereof to 1 ohm or less. This low value of resistance results in a substantial increase in the voltage being applied to the remaining bulbs even when only a single bulb is inoperative for any of the reasons previously stated. Thus, when multiple bulbs are inoperative, a still greater voltage is applied to the remaining bulbs, thereby again substantially increasing their illumination, and consequently, substantially shortening their life expectancy.
In contrast, by utilizing a shunt of the type proposed by Applicant, substantially all of the bulbs in a 50 bulb string can become inoperative for any or all of the reasons previously stated, with only a minimal decrease in intensity of illumination of the remaining bulbs, which is not possible with any of the foregoing shunts. Additionally, and of particular significance, is the fact that the Swiss '021 teaching has now been available to those skilled in the art for over 30 years, that the Harnden '966 has additionally been available for over 20 years, and, the Fleck '449 teaching has still additional been available for over 8 years, and yet none of such teachings, either singly of collectively, have found their way to commercial application. In fact, as mentioned above, miniature Christmas tree types lights now rely solely upon a specially designed bulb which is supposed to short out when becoming inoperative. Obviously, such a scheme is not always effective, particularly when a bulb is removed from its socket or becomes damaged in handling, etc. The extent of the extreme attempts made by others to absolutely keep the bulbs from falling from their sockets, includes the use of a locking groove formed on the inside circumference of the socket mating with a corresponding raised ridge formed on the base of the bulb base unit. While this particular locking technique apparently is very effective to keep bulbs from falling from their respective sockets, the replacement of defective bulbs by the average user is extremely difficult, if not sometimes impossible, without resorting to mechanical gripping devices which can actually destroy the bulb base unit or socket.